Carlos Miller is founder and publisher of Photography is Not a Crime, which began as a one-man blog in 2007 to document his trial after he was arrested for photographing police during a journalistic assignment.
He is also the author of The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, which can be purchased through Amazon.

Video of Cuban exiles assaulting me as I was filming demonstration

February 14, 2008

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Update: The above photos,which show me defending myself after the assault, were taken by Roberto Koltun of El Nuevo Herald. These are the photos I was trying to acquire from the Herald because they never ran with the article.

Update: The above photo was taken by a Cuban exile named Aldo Rosado-Tuero while I was arguing with a young Cuban exile named Vicente Diaz who threatened to stick the camera up my ass. Rosado-Tuero posted my picture on his website asking for infomation about me because he found me suspicious. Here are photos I took that day.

The incident that occurred on Saturday is not surprising considering the history of violence in the Miami Cuban exile community. The only reason they didn’t attack Code Pink was because the Cuban exiles were placed behind barricades and yellow police ribbon. But that only seemed to antagonize the few troublemakers that are always involved in these incidents.

By walking behind the barricades, I was stepping into a lion’s cage.

But despite what happened, I will do it again the next time the old guard gathers at Versailles, whether if it’s for Code Pink protesting or Fidel Castro dying for the umpteenth time.

And I will film, photograph and speak to whomever I want, even if they are behind barricades waving a Che Guevara flag (oh, the horror!).

And I if I see this lying sack-of-shit, I will walk up to his face and call him a mentiroso. A mentiroso sin huevos who stated on his website that I was misrepresenting myself as a CNN reporter, which is a complete lie.

Aldo Rosado-Tuero, you claim to be a journalist on your website. But a real journalist would have walked up to me and asked me who I was. Your Cuban counterparts did, so somebody in your crowd has my business card.

You also claim that I was sneakingly taking photos of your “director”, whoever that is. If your director was wearing an Alpha 66 shirt or a Vigilia Mambisa shirt while waving a pro-Posada sign and screaming profanities into a bullhorn, there is a good chance I might have taken his photo.

But the real sneak is you, Rosada-Tuero, because you thought you were being sly when taking photos of me when I wasn’t looking. I knew what you were doing. I just didn’t give a shit.

You see, I’m not a raving, paranoid lunatic. I don’t believe everybody is a spy out to get me.

Speaking of which, Jorge Garcia, you senile fascist. Do I really come across as a “Cuban intelligence agent”? Or did you just tell a newspaper reporter that to slander my name?

Do you realize you come across as a bat-shit crazy Cuban by saying things like that?

And Vincente Diaz. How dare you come to this country for freedom only to threaten my freedom? If you ever try to follow through on your threat of sticking my camera up my ass, I will stick my monopod so far up your ass that you will think you’re back in a Cuban jail cell.

Just because you guys allowed freedom to be taken from you in Cuba doesn’t mean I’m about to do the same here.

You guys are an embarrassment to Miami’s Cuban community. An embarrassment to democracy. And an embarrassment to the younger Cuban-Americans who grew up straddling two cultures and are now old enough to see the truth.

And here’s a wake-up call. The streets of Miami do not belong to the Cubans, despite what that other flag-waving lunatic said in my previous video.